In AD 9 there was nothing routine about taking an army into the Teutoberg Forest but commander Varus could have had little idea what lay in wait for his three legions when he led them east of the Rhine. Varus’s orders were to consolidate Roman control in this dangerous Germanic border region, to show Rome’s might, assert its authority. But history tells us of the disaster that followed. Varus would be betrayed. His close adviser Arminius, a Romanised German, was friend in name only. He secretly united the Germanic tribes and together they turned the Teutoberg Forest into a place of ambush, terror, blood and slaughter. Varus’s legions lost their eagles, their sacred standards, swiftly followed by their lives in Rome’s most infamous defeat.